January 21, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



29 



English Rose-grower, contributes to The Garden the following 

 note with regard to this plant, which we should be glad to see 

 more generally cultivated here : 



" It is best grown as a dwarf, though I have standards in my 

 garden which flower freely, but the slender leafage and short 

 time of flowering hardly render them nice-looking objects for 

 the rest of the year. As dwarf bushes they succeed admira- 

 bly, growing in any good light soil, either on their own roots or 

 worked on Briar or Manetti stocks ; indeed, I think the stock 

 gives an additional root power, and so leads to stronger and 

 more vigorously pushed-up shoots, the flowers being pro- 

 duced along the full length of the last year's suckers orshoots. 

 Good suckers are very valuable, and give the finest blooms. 

 The small wood should, on pruning in March, be cut closely 

 into the two-year-old wood, the strong wood be left long, and 

 these shoots be bent over in the shape of a bow, or they may 

 be pegged down parallel with the ground their full length. 



"So far this Rose has not given, to my knowledge, any 

 hybrid progeny. It has been tried at Lyons, and Lacharme 

 had it freely planted on the wall upon which he seeded his 

 Roses, no doubt with the hope of the pollen effecting natural 

 hybridization, but no seedling of his which I have seen showed 

 any signs of hybridization. In its native home I believe it 

 seeds freely. 



" As a rock plant it is effective, and should have a sunny 

 southern exposure to ripen the wood. In common with other 

 Roses, the riper the wood the better it flowers. In saying that 

 no hybrids had been produced, I do not forget Harrisoni and 

 Persian Yellow, which are probably double forms of this 

 variety, Persian Yellow being probably an introduction as a 

 double form from eastern gardens, as R. sulphureaaXso was." 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Viburnum molle. 



THIS handsome plant is closely related to the common 

 and familiar blue-fruited Viburnum or Arrowwood of 

 the northern states ( Viburnum denlalum). It is a tall shrub, 

 with stout stems growing sometimes fifteen or eighteen 

 feet high, and slender branchlets, beset when they first 

 appear, like the petioles and flower-cymes, with stellate 

 pubescence. The leaves, which are borne on rather slen- 

 der petioles, are broadly oval or ovate, conspicuously 

 crenulate-dentate, and softly pubescent, especially on the 

 lower surface. They are often four or five inches long by 

 nearly as much broad. The flowers differ from those of 

 V. dentatum in their more prominent calyx-teeth, while the 

 blue fruit is larger than that of that species, more pointed 

 by the persistent style and rather more oily. 



V. molle* grows on some of the islands of Massachu- 

 setts (Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Naushon) and 

 extends southward to Florida and Texas. It has been 

 cultivated for a number of years in the Arnold Arboretum, f 

 where it is perfectly hardy, and where, like many of the 

 North American Viburnums, it is a valuable and exceed- 

 ingly ornamental plant, well worth a place in any collec- 

 tion of hardy shrubs. C. S. S. 



New Orchids. 



Cypripedium insigne, var. Macfarlanei, Rolfe, is a beauti- 

 ful yellow variety, much like the variety Sanderce in color, but 

 quite different in shape. The dorsal sepal is much narrower 

 and with a smaller white area, the petals narrower, but the 

 bract much longer. The plant is in the collection of R. H. 

 Measures, Esq., of Streatham. — Gardeners' Chronicle, Decem- 

 ber 6th, p. 655. 



Cattleya Rex, O'Brien, is described as a beautiful Cattleya, 

 somewhat resembling C. Dowiatia, var. Imschootiana, in the 

 shape and color of the flowers, but with long, thin pseudo- 

 bulbs, and the leaf about a foot long. It was introduced by 

 Messrs. Linden, L'Horticulture Internationale, Bruxelles. I 

 have not seen it. — Gardeners' Chronicle, December 13th, p. 684. 



* Vibui'mim molle, Michaux, "Fl. Bor. Am.," i., 180. — Gray, "Syn. Fl. N. Am.," 

 i., 11. — Watson & Coulter, "Gray's Man. N. States," ed. 6, 218. 



V.scabrellum, Chapman, " Fl. S. States," 172. 



t There seems to be considerable confusion with regard to the correct deter' 

 mutation oif 7 . molle in collections. It has been received at the Arboretum from 

 the Parsons Nursery at Flushing as V. l&vigatum, and also as V. Nepalense ; and 

 the V. pubescens'oi the Kew Arboretum (No. 1104) is not Pursh's plant of that name, 

 but V. molle. 



Cypripedium x Antigone, Rolfe, is a most elegant hybrid, 

 raised by Mr. Seden in the establishment of Messrs. James 

 Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, from C. Lawrenceanum, fertilized 

 with the pollen of C. nivenm. It is much like the former in 

 habit, but the flowers are white, variously nerved and veined 

 with light purple, thus more nearly resembling the pollen 

 parent, though tolerably intermediate in shape. The leaves 

 are very-hanclsonjely variegated. It received a first-class cer- 

 tificate from the Royal Horticultural Society on November 

 1 1 th last. — Gardeners' Chronicle, December 20th, p. 716; also 

 November 15th, p. 570, and November 22d, p. 602. 



Cypripedium x Doris, Rolfe, is a pretty hybrid raised in the 

 collection of N. C. Cookson, Esq., of Wylam-on-Tyne, from 

 C. venustum fertilized with the pollen of C. Stonei. It has re- 

 tained largely the characters of the mother plant, the influence 

 of C. Stonei being unusually small. A second plant, however, 

 is said to show more of the Stonei character. It received an 

 award of merit from the Royal Horticultural Society on No- 

 vember nth last. — Gardeners' Chronicle, December 20th, p. 

 716; also November 15th, p. 570, and November 22d, p. 602. 

 Kew. R. A. Rolfe. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Fertilizers for Orchids. — The interesting experiments 

 made by Mr. Moore on his Orchids at Glasnevin were referred 

 to a few weeks ago. I refer to them again for the purpose of 

 showing how similar results to those obtained by Mr. Moore 

 have been arrived at by a grower in the south of England, Mr. 

 Spencer, gardener at Goodrich Court, in Rosshire, who writes: 

 " I gave all our Cypripediums, except C. niveum and its allies, 

 a dressing in June of Jensen's fish guano, which they took to 

 amazingly. They have also received several doses of manure 

 water from the stable tank, and they show their appreciation 

 of it by the darker color of the foliage and robustness of health 

 generally. As an example, I may mention C. Spicerianum, of 

 which a plant purchased six years ago, when it was in a small 

 sixty pot, is now in a twelve-inch pot and recently carried 

 seventeen flower-scapes, bearing a total of thirty-two blooms, 

 thirteen of the scapes carrying each a pair of flowers, one 

 three flowers, and three one flower each. I think this is a 

 proof of the good that results from feeding well these plants 

 when growing. I also use manure for Caelogyne cris- 

 tata with good effect. Although I have not ventured yet to 

 directly apply manure to Lselias, Cattleyas and similar Orchids, 

 I see no reason why it should not prove more or less bene- 

 ficial for them and for all Orchids if applied with discretion. 

 Meanwhile, I take care to keep the atmosphere of the houses 

 impregnated with ammonia by means of frequent dampings 

 down with stable drainings. This must make a difference to 

 all the plants with roots exposed to the air, such as Vandas, 

 Oncidiums, etc. We shall in time, perhaps, get to grow 

 many Orchids as fat as we now grow Cockscombs and 

 Hyacinths." 



Chrysanthemum Mrs. Beal is the best by far of all the 

 white late-flowering varieties, at any rate it is superior to any 

 other at Kew. It makes a nice shapely plant, the flowers are 

 large, particularly elegant in arrangement of florets, and of the 

 purest snow white, without even a suspicion of green in them. 

 If I wanted a large quantity of a particularly pleasing white 

 flower for Christmas decorations I should grow a good many 

 plants of this Chrysanthemum. 



Mrs. Alpheus Hardy is proving something of a failure 

 here as a decorative plant; the flowers are rarely even respect- 

 able in form, often they fail to open regularly, and when 

 open they are curious merely. All this, too, notwith- 

 standing the most careful treatment, such as, if given to any 

 other variety, would never fail to produce first-rate plants. 



The Official Catalogue of the National Chrysanthemum 

 Society (centenary edition) has lately been issued. It contains 

 acareful, interesting paper on the history of the Chrysanthemum 

 by Mr. Harman Payne; a bibliographical list; select descriptive 

 lists of the best exhibition kinds in each of the ten sections into 

 which Chrysanthemums are now divided ; a general alphabeti- 

 cal list with synonymy, and a list of new unvouched varieties. 

 The raiser's name and year of distribution are given with each 

 of the recognized kinds. Altogether the book contains much 

 useful information, and will interest both growers and ad- 

 mirers of the Chrysanthemum. Its price is one shilling, and 

 it is sold by E. W. Allen, 4 Ave Maria Lane, London. 



Statices are among the most useful of winter-flowering 

 plants ; they grow and flower freely, they are fog-proof, and 

 the dull winter weather does not appreciably affect them. Then 



